Quick NYC Getaway

By Thomas Morrone, CFP®, CPA

Any trip to NYC is always memorable. Cathy and I are fortunate that such a great city is a quick train ride from New Haven. I write this on the train that is now departing Grand Central on its way back to New Haven. It was a wonderful couple of nights visiting the city that never sleeps. The focus of the quick adventure was to see the Broadway show MJ, which is the Michael Jackson story. More on that in a moment. We stayed on West 54th Street, which was only 2 blocks from the theater, so it was a very convenient location. We had a corner room on the 37th floor and the views of the Manhattan skyline were amazing. 

We had tickets for a 2:00 matinee and purchased the tickets 4 months earlier so we were excited that show time was finally upon us. The show was sold out and the attendees were of all ages and nationalities. To say the show was great does not do it any justice. The way the MJ’s life story was crammed into 2 1/2 hours was amazing. From the opening scene to the final curtain call, the words that come to mind are “high energy”. The music and dancing captivated you every step of the way. It is amazing what a performer he had become and his global recognition as an artist was quite impressive. Even as we exited the theater, people were singing their favorite MJ songs.

After a nice Italian dinner (no surprise), we made our way back to the hotel. We were sitting around talking about how much we enjoyed the show, and we were planning what we would do in the morning of our full day in the city. The next thing I knew, I was online buying tickets for the 7:00 PM performance, on the next day, for Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond story. We woke up, had some breakfast, and hit the streets of New York on our way to a 20,000-step day. After some lunch, we decided to break up the day with some down time back in the room. It was nice to relax for a couple of hours. After some relaxing time, we were off to an early dinner and on to another show! 

The Neil Diamond show was captivating as his life story was told from an interesting viewpoint. His music, and the meanings behind the lyrics of the songs covered the span from uplifting to extremely sad. We were so glad that we made the effort to get the tickets on the spur of the moment. We were saying we would come back and see his show but instead of it being a someday event in the future, it ended up being the next day. If Broadway musicals are your thing and you have not seen either of these two shows, I would highly recommend making the effort. 

On our last day we were in no hurry to go home so after breakfast we decided to walk through Central Park. It was a gorgeous sunny day and people were everywhere. Dog walkers, bikers, joggers, horse and buggy carriages and many like us, just strolling along enjoying a beautiful day. It always amazes me how such a tranquil hiatus from the hustle and bustle of the city is only steps away. It was a wonderful way to spend our last day in the city. After some lunch of course it was time to head to the train station and back to reality.

Another memory, life is good!

Until the next Tom’s Take………….

_{Tracking: 438602-1}